Sandi L Boucher, Red Thunderbolt of the Loon clan, Seine River First Nation, contrasts Indigenous time with clock time. Indigenous perspectives say everything happens for a reason and when it's meant to. She shares how this worldview helped her move past bitterness after multiple divorces, career shifts, and losing a child.
Questions this video answers
April 10, 2024.
Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory (Northern Ontario).
Three times.
She was 20 years old.
Chapters
Personal revelation. Just realized I've become my mom in a lot of different ways, but this is in a new way. You see, when I used to talk about my mom or when I talk about my mom with audiences, I always share with them that she was that person that had to take it to the next level. Like, she didn't want to stay with the superficial conversation. She would take it to the what does this mean to you? What life lesson did you get out of it? Always going to the second level. And that's kind of what I did with the pretendian video on Monday. I added that extra aspect. I'm sharing all of this with you because I'm about to do it again, which is why I realized I'm becoming my mom. I've done videos on Indigenous worldview and especially the way many Indigenous people look at time and how that is so incredibly different from the mainstream view of time. There's a really important next level that I need to share with you that might help you realize why the way we look at time is so important to us. So let's talk about it. Bonjour. Hi, everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And today, like I said, I wanted to go to that next level on the differences between the Indigenous worldview and the mainstream worldview when it comes to time. And when I'm talking about, and I joked about this so often, I have so many clocks in my office and in my apartment, and I listen to none of them. I don't use an alarm. I haven't used an alarm clock in like three, 15 years. Should do the math on that. It's probably longer than that now, I believe I go to bed when I'm tired. I get up when I'm rested. It's always at the same time. And most importantly, if I'm in a conversation with someone, I am not checking my watch or my phone that the conversation is going to end when the conversation ends, not because the big hen touched the 12th. And that's the huge difference, honestly, from an Indigenous worldview, from my worldview or my impression. It blows me away because I always think of plots are supposed to be a tool to help you live your life. Yet I see so many people that look like they look like. And again, my interpretation, through my cultural lens, they look like they're a slave to the clock, that they have to do this because it's this time and this time and they wonder why they're unhappy. Yeah. So we are. We believe that everything happens when it's meant to. And this is not that God awful stereotype, that warped version of a sacred teaching that has become Indian time. Indian time is not an excuse to show up late. It's not an excuse to wander in whenever you feel like it. That's disrespectful. Respect is one of our seven grandfather teachings that does not fly. Having said that, we are also not going to give ourselves high blood pressure, anxiety or heart attack racing to get there just because the big hands touch the 12th. If we run into a colleague or a friend on the way that we haven't seen in ages. Relationships trump everything. We're going to stop and ask them how they are because we don't know if we're going to see them again. Right. So it's not that we're trying to be disrespectful. It's a difference in value. So I mentioned that we believe that everything happens for a reason. But here's that other level that you may not realize. And I realized I haven't said it out loud. I haven't been blunt or direct about it, so maybe they missed that part. We believe that everything happened for everything happens for a reason. For you that for example, we all know this. If you've been on my channel for any length of time, you can go find the video that yes, I've been married and divorced three times. Do not judge. I came to terms with that a long time ago. What I didn't realize until a good friend of my last husband pointed out to me I would not have had this career if I was still with any one of them. Their egos, their lack of self confidence, them, their whoever they were would not have allowed me to have the confidence, the voice, the opinion, the career, the time to put in the commitment to build this career. None of this would have happened if those marriages didn't end. Now. Of course, at the time it sure didn't feel like it was for me. Creators wiser than all of us. So everything happens when it's meant to. I spent the time I was meant to with those people. It didn't work out. I took the lessons from it, left the rest like my mom would say, and I moved on and became who I was meant to be, which is who I am now, by the way. You're not going to become who you're meant to be if you're hanging on to all the garbage from the past. If you're letting the world make you bitter or untrustworthy. Then you're putting the world in charge of you. Yeah, put that stuff down. You let the person who did it carry that baggage, and that's between them and Creator. You don't get to decide what happens to them. That would be an ego trip. Creator makes that decision. They are not in your world anymore. Let them go. They're on their path. You got to stay on yours. What I need you to remember, and I know I've mentioned this in videos before, once again, if you email me, you can get a copy of the little graphic that goes with this, but you are awesome. And the word awesome is an acronym and it stands for an amazing warrior embarking on a journey specific to you and only you. One that will motivate you and empower you to be everything you're meant to be. Everything happens for a reason and everything happens when it's meant to. So quit stressing out why this hasn't happened yet or that hasn't happened yet. My mom would be the first to say, if something hasn't happened yet that you want, that's because there's something else you have to do first. There's something you have to change. There's something you have to learn. There's some lesson that you need that'll help you grow so that you can be the person that that thing happens for. Tada. So Creator's not out to get you. The world is not out to get you. That's a very negative barrier that you've put in between yourself and your happiness. The powers on your side of the feather. You got this. You decide as long as you keep pointing at other people. Well, they did this to me and they did that to me. My mom would be the first to say, whoever you're pointing to is who you're giving your power to, so stop doing that. Everything happens for a reason. For you. And I don't know about you. And by the way, you may not know right away. It may take months or even years to figure out why something happened. Like the end of my marriages. But I have. I love the days when the fog clears and you realize why something happened. And do not tell me that you can't do that with really horrific things. Because I know I've mentioned this in a video in the past, but I lost my eldest daughter to SIDS. I was only 20. She was only two months old. But it didn't take me long to realize that the cocky. I know everything. I don't need help from any one mom that Fallon had was not the mom that my next two children needed. My next daughter's middle name is Cherish, because that's what losing her sister taught me. So, yes, everything for a reason. When it's meant to take the lessons. The good ones leave the rest. Leave the bitterness, leave the negativity. All of that are just weights weighing you down. You can't blame other people for you not succeeding. If you've held on to all those rocks, you can barely walk. How are you going to climb that mountain? I hope that made sense. That became a little bit more of a lecture than I thought. But seriously, start being all you're meant to be. Quit giving those other people power. I love you. Until tomorrow. Bye. Bye.
